Once upon a time, in February 2007, there aired 2 surprisingly brilliant CSI: Miami epsides called No Man's Land and Man Down, respectively, and I immediately started working on a post-ep called "Clockwork Silence." Some 14 months later, having poked at it every 2 or 3 months on a regular basis to make only miniscule progress, the third installment of it is finally done. (and technically speaking, I'm three days shy of putting a year between the publishing of chapters 1 and 3)

I don't know if there's going to be a part four. There was originally; it was going to go back to Horatio and mirror the first chapter in structure for"Man Down," but after all this time I still haven't really gotten a feel for how to write it. And yet there are some 350 words of viable material, some sentences of which I really quite adore, and would hate to abandon. Dilemmas, dilemmas.

Anyway!Title: Clockwork Silence, chapter 3 Rating: K+...maybeCharacters: Ryan, Calleigh, Alexx, NataliaWord count: 1140, in 4 sectionsExcerpt summary: His nails are short and rough in contrast to the smooth polish of hers, with one bruised dark purple, almost black, like a stain. She tries not to think of omens.

Further history: The first words of this chapter I literally wrote on the day I started the fic as a whole, even before part 2 aired - I had the idea for Natalia's "that's a good rookie" line, as well as the idea of cross's "holiness lost amidst bullets and blood." From there I thought I might expand one of them into a full-fledged character-study of a chapter, but eventually I settled into the idea of a chapter composed of drabbles.

A month ago, as I struggled and tussled with each of the incomplete portions - they only encompassed 200-300 words apiece; how could it be so difficult?! - with Ryan's being particularly difficult and refusing to get beyond 2 sentences, I wondered how to separate them. In the draft it just went RYAN: / CALLEIGH: etc, but that wouldn't fly in the end. And I didn't really want to come up with yet *more* titles. Out of nowhere, it occurred to me that perhaps I could separate them with lyrics from the song I'd taken the fic's title from ("Now or Never," Josh Groban). Sure enough, I not only found 4 that would work, I found them all in one consecutive verse!

And I'm really quite giddy about that fact. So giddy that I wrapped the bulk of my writing right then and there, and I would have posted this in March except that I couldn't think of how to finish Alexx's, and I wasn't quite happy with Ryan's.

I'm still not quite happy with Ryan's, so it's a pity his has to come first, but following the lyric outline, it really does. And Alexx's might come to a sort of slip-scramble of an ending too, but you know how you can just "feel" when a story is done? Maybe it's just me. I fight with sentences for ages, changing words and phrases and order over and over, until all of a sudden they lock in. Once all the pieces have locked in, it's like, I don't know, when the giant smiley face comes out upon winning a game of Minesweeper (which I've never actually done, but...work with me). I just know it's done. Time to post.

Calleigh's is still my favorite, I think, despite (or because of?) being the shortest, but I'm quite fond of Natalia's too, and...overall I'm just really proud of completing another piece of creative writing, no matter how small, even if it is just part of a larger work and not something completely new.

----In unrelated news, someone just sent me "Friday I'm in Love," and I am very happy with this piece of radio nostalgia. They also sent me "Running up that Hill," by Placebo, which I seem to recall being important to CSI somehow. Was it over a promo, or was it part of the episode? It sounds vaguely familiar as I'm listening, but I'm wondering if I even have the right version...at present moment I can't tell if I'm listening to a man or a woman. And I feel like I remembered it being much purer and/or less...growly.

Current Mood: ecstatic

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'Running Up That Hill' is a song originally done by Kate Bush, famously covered by Placebo, most notable for its use in the 'Judas On A Pole' episode of 'Bones' but also features in 'The Case Of The Cross-Dressing Carp' episode of 'CSI'.

Yay, informations! *pats* Is like having Wikipedia custom-delivered to my door. Still not sure why I know it, since I think I only watched one scene in that ep of CSI, and I didn't particularly like that episode of Bones...but no matter. I'm kind of loving the song on its own merit now.